Battle of Earth: The Feathers of Tokyo
by RedRapture
Summary: A version of Battle: Los Angeles that happens with Sekerei on the planet. Will Miya, the Sekirei and the Marines of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force be able to fight off the invaders and save their planet? Rated M for heavy war scenes, course language and adult themes (no smut).
1. The Coming Storm

**A/N So, welcome to the first chapter of this story. It's a wee bit short this time around. Don't worry too much about it though, this is an establishment chapter, meant only to introduce the characters that will be in the story. Hope you all enjoy, check my profile for updates on production. Constructive criticism is appreciated, trolling will be shoved out an airlock.**

 **Tokyo, Japan**

In the city of Tokyo, a lone woman stands on top of a building. "My Ashikabe, I have found thee. Now prepare thyself for death!" The woman yells out as she spies the shaded figure approaching her. She flings out her hand and yells "Water Celebration!" A bolt of water streaks towards the shadowy figure, only to evaporate away at the last minute. Everything is suddenly unbearably hot around her! Gasping, the woman spins around and gazes out upon the city, a city now on flames, a sky wreathed in clouds of smoke and raining fire down upon the helpless citizens in it.

Tsukiume gasps as she jolts upright from her dream, still laying in her perch atop the building she had fallen asleep on, safely out of reach of any of the vile humans down below who might defile her body. That dream...it had started like so many other dreams she has had in the past week but now, now it has changed. Fire? "Doth Homura go insane?" She asks herself as she rises up to her feet, looking out over the city. The image of the city in flames flashes through her mind, briefly overlaying the beautiful panorama beneath her and causing her to shudder and hold herself.

"Such a nightmare. I love not these monkeys, but I do not desire to see their destruction." She says to herself, looking around. Figuring that some exercise will help clear her head, she starts leaping from rooftop to rooftop once more, seeking out a battle with any who would have it and otherwise staying on the move. She knows that the dream she had been having, before it turned to a nightmare, means that she is reacting to an ashikabe. "When I find thee, Ashikabe, I shall give thee death. Just as I have dreamed." She vows as she jumps from building to building.

Halfway across the city, Minato shivers a little bit. Someone is thinking dirty things about him, he just KNOWS it. Kusano, a young girl he just rescued from the atrium of the city, smiles up at him. "Are you ok, big brother?" She asks, smiling out at the back yard of Maison Izumo. She's having the best day of her life so far. Her big brother came and found her, kept the scythe lady away, and then Musubi beat her down. Now he's her ashikabe! Things couldn't get any better.

"Yeah, Kuu, I'm fine." He says to her, patting her head and rubbing it gently. "So, uh…Kuu?" He says nervously.

Kuu looks up at him with a smile. "Yes, big brother?"

He looks out across the back yard, now overgrown with all the plant growth that happened when young Kusano emerged due to him kissing her. "Are you…going to do something about all these plants?" He asks.

Kuu grins at him and laughs a bit in response.

"I don't know." Comes a sweet voice from behind as Musubi comes out in her gym outfit and sits next to the pair. "I think the yard looks very pretty this way."

"Well, won't Miya get just a bit upset though?" He asks.

"Well…." Musubi says, putting a finger up to her chin. "I dunno, maybe?" She smiles to her ashikabe and tilts her head to the side in that way that shows there's not a whole lot going on upstairs right now.

"Don't worry, Minato." Comes another voice. All three of them look back and up to see the landlady, Miya Asama, standing behind them. "I'll have you weed the yard tomorrow. Now come along, dinner is ready."

* * *

 **Okinawa, Japan**

Lieutenant Brent Shepard sighs as he moves through the corridors of the US base he and his men are assigned to on Okinawa. Their end goal is to get to the briefing room. "I just don't get it, Jake. I don't even look like the guy!" He complains to his staff sergeant as he walks along the hallways of the main base building.

The man in question grins a big white grin, amused that this has happened yet again to his CO. "Yeah, but come on! You have 'Shepard' as your last name!" He says in his deep voice. Staff Sergeant Jacob Scott, a black man who grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, has the build of a linebacker and a deep voice to back it up. Everyone who meets him for the first time, however, is surprised by how kind and friendly of a man he is. He's just as capable of cracking a good joke and enjoying a beer on his time off as he is capable of putting two in the chest and one in the head. "You should take it as a badge of honor to be called 'Commander Shepard' by the newbies. I mean, in the game, the dude saves the galaxy and pulls off all sorts of impossible shit."

Shepard nods and groans. "Yeah, but come on! That kind of thing puts expectations on my shoulders that I couldn't possibly live up to! I can just barely keep the squad running, and that's with your help. How am I supposed to do that AND pull off being some superhero?"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. Hopefully, you'll never get so deep in the shit that you'll have to live up to the hype." He says as they turn into the briefing room. It only takes them a few minutes to find a seat and sit down for the briefing. "Besides, you give it a few weeks, they'll stop calling you by that name. You'll see."

Shepard nods a bit and groans, resting his head in his hands as the others continue to file in. Just as he is about to speak, the base commander comes in and everyone rises to their feet. "Be seated." The older man says. The marines all sit back down.

"Right, down to business. We are going to be loading up on the USS Valkyrie in thirty minutes' time. NASA has detected a meteor shower en route to our planet." The screen behind him shifts to show a telescope image of space. The next image to pop up shows several more dots where there were none before.

"It's looking like the first of these meteors will hit off the eastern coast of Japan in the next day. It's just the first in a long stream of meteors that are going to impact around the world over a twenty-four hour period. Fortunately, it looks like they'll all be water landings." The image shifts as he says that to a rotating globe, showing projected landing areas for the meteor shower in pulsing circles out to sea around the globe. When it finishes turning, it zooms in to show a map of Japan. There's a red dot in the Sea of Japan to the north of the main island, just inside the bend of the island itself.

"Still, the Japanese government has asked us to be ready after the impacts in case of tsunamis. The Valkyrie will station here with the Ronald Reagan task force and we will deploy around the countryside as needed." He says, pointing to the dot that has the label 'CVN-76'. "Are there any questions?"

One man, a captain, lifts up his hand and is recognized. "Why are we positioning there, sir? Wouldn't it be better to position to the south of the island, where we'd be closer to the possible disaster zones?"

The base commander grins. "The Navy is nervous about putting its precious ships in the firing line of a meteor shower. So, we're on this side of the main island, not the other. Anything else? No? Alright, head out and have your troops gear up and get ready to board."

With that, all the soldiers rise up from their seats, chit chatting among themselves as they head out of the room. The biggest question, and the one no one asked, is why the JSDF can't handle this on their own. A few meteors and they are deploying the entire MEU from Okinawa?

"Well, Sergeant Scott, gather up the men." Shepard says to his Sergeant, who nods and heads off. "Have them assemble in the squad briefing room." Scott waves as he leaves the room in the other direction to where Shepard is going.

Five minutes later, the squad starts to file into the briefing room on the other side of the base. Once everyone is there, Shepard gives them the same briefing, roughly, that he got from the base commander. "So there you have it. Any questions?" He asks, looking around the room.

"Yeah, why are they deploying us for a meteor shower?" Asks one of the many Private First Classes in the platoon, PFC John Davis.

"Hey, I don't like being cooped up in the ship with nowhere to go any more than you do." Shepard says, "But we're going to do it anyway. We get paid for this shit, so we're going to go and get it done. Anything else?"

PFC Gonzalez is the next to speak up. "Where are we going once the ship gets to where it's going?" He asks.

Shepard shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine." He says, then looks around. No one else speaks up so he nods. "Alright, we've got this. Let's get our shit and get on the ship. Dismissed." He says, heading off with his troops to pack up for deployment.

By the end of the day, the Wasp class USS Valkyrie has set sail and is steaming north along with the US 7th Fleet to the position it would hold during the meteor shower.

* * *

 **Tokyo, Japan**

Homura, the Guardian Sekirei, jumps around the city, following a series of flashes on the rooftops of a few buildings. He can see that the flashes are from electrical discharges. Those damn twins are at it again. Sure enough, when he finally catches up with them, the two twins of electricity, Hibiki and Hikari, have a Sekirei cornered on the roof top and are grinning and glaring at the girl while their electricity sparks up.

"I thought I told you two ladies before. The unwinged ones are not for you to fight." He says, landing between them and their target. The two girls recoil a bit.

"Shit, what are YOU doing here?" Hikari says in a loud, challenging voice. "Do you WANT to take us both on?!" Hibiki looks a little bit nervous, remembering the last few times they tangled with this particular Sekirei.

"Are you two sure you want that? Because I'm game if you are." Homura says, holding out a hand and sprouting a flame up in it. This seems to scare the twins as they take a step back.

After a few seconds of standoff, the more aggressive twin huffs angrily. "You're just lucky we don't fight winged ones!" She says, turning and hopping off, her sister following her.

Homura sighs and douses his flame, glad that this time his powers are listening to him. He turns to the Sekirei the twins were after and looks at her, his black mask covering the slight grin. "Still having a hard time finding your destined one?" He asks.

The Sekirei nods, unclenching her fists. "Yeah, thanks." She says. "I didn't want to fight them, I had no reason to."

Homura nods. "Yes, those of us with no ashikabe have no reason to fight. Good luck in finding yours." He says. He watches the other Sekirei as she hops off, heading to find a place to recover.

"So nice of you, guarding the unwinged ones like this." Says a seductive voice from above. Homura looks up and sees a tall woman, well-endowed and wearing a form fitting purple dress, come down and land behind him, a large bottle of sake in her hand.

"It's my job." He says to her. "To guard the unwinged ones until they have all been winged."

The purple dressed woman with dark hair looks at him seriously. "But what will you do after?" She asks.

Homura shrugs. "I guess I'll just kill that man. It'll be good to make sure that all the feathers I guarded until they found their partners will live happily ever after."

She smirks at him. "There's a storm coming though, one that's far worse than any we've ever seen before."


	2. First Contact

**A/N There are some things inside the Sekirei story that will be either left out or toned down. After all, this story merges an anime, which typically does not obey the laws of physics, with a live action movie's universe, which must act inside the laws of physics. The easiest thing is to simply adapt the Sekirei to a universe in which they cannot break the laws of physics. As such, minor things, such as jumping between buildings or things that can be explained with reasonable suspension of belief will be included. Things I can't explain well enough for me to believe won't be included. Other abilities may be edited just a bit to have the same effect, but with a different cause.  
**

Miya Asama smiles as the sun shines down in the sky above her. Such a beautiful day, and with new residents who will hopefully begin paying rent soon, she will not have to burn through her late husband's death payout. She had hoped to sit on that, to let the money grow and live comfortably. But with Uzume not working and Homura only able to pay for himself given the amount of money he makes being a host, she had been slightly worried. Now this new man shows up with a Sekirei in tow. It seems she just can't escape from MBI's plans, can she? Her mood darkens a bit as she thinks about the company, or more specifically the man, whose recklessness cost her husband his life. She cannot forgive him for that, but she knows that Takehito would not have wanted her to seek revenge for him.

"Hey, landlady Miya!" Comes a call from inside, immediately snapping her out of her mood. She comes inside in her normal seemingly slow pace and smiles to her newest tenant, Minato. "Yes?" She asks, giving her sweetest smile.

Minato points to the television. "You might want to look at this." He says to her. The television is on the news, showing a headline saying 'Meteors detected coming towards planet.' She hmmms, looking at the screen. "Well, I don't see how this affects us." She says, "There's nothing we can do about giant rocks falling from the sky."

Minato blinks. "Uh…yeah…" He says, looking at her. "Shouldn't we leave?" He asks. "I mean, we're really close to the coast right here."

Miya smiles kindly and shakes her head. "No, I don't think we need to. We are close, but there's a city between us and the sea! Any wave that would hit us would break on the downtown area first." She says sweetly, as if the deaths of the millions of people in the metro area between them and the ocean don't matter.

"Oh, is there something going on?" Asks Musubi as she comes into the room, carrying the combined laundry of herself and her beloved Ashikabe.

Miya smiles. "Nothing we need to worry about. Come with me, Musubi, it's time to continue your training."

"Right!" Musubi says with all the enthusiasm she can muster, dropping the laundry onto the floor. Minato sighs and goes to collect it himself as the two women head outside. 'Guess it's my turn to do the laundry today.' He thinks to himself. That's when the news starts to catch his attention again.

"We do not know much information at this time. The meteors appear to be headed for impacting points in the ocean around ten major cities across the globe. While the government has given no official statement about these events, we do know that the Self Defense Forces have begun to deploy, in addition to American forces based at Okinawa." As the reporter is talking, the screen displays stock footage of JSDF and American ships sailing, of soldiers disembarking from armored personnel carriers, and images of the Japanese Type 10 Main Battle Tank.

Minato blinks at that. The military is deploying BEFORE the meteors hit the water? Something doesn't seem right about all of this. Minato may not be the best in terms of being in shape, but he is relatively smart, despite failing the entrance exams for university twice in a row. Something is up.

Upstairs, in a secret room hidden away from the other tenants, a red haired Sekirei with glasses looks worriedly at the satellite images she has gotten. She knows almost everything the military does at this point, and what she knows is worrying her. There's only one thing to do. She gets up and runs for the door, yelling loudly for Miya.

 **Sea of Japan**

Lt. Shepard sighs as he finds himself once again in a briefing room. He looks at the briefing screen as it shows the logo for the US Forces Japan. Scott looks at him. "About time we find out about what's going on." He says to his boss, Shepard nodding in agreement. Once again, all of the marines rise to their feet as the commander of their unit comes into the room.

"At ease, be seated." The guy says impatiently. "We don't have a lot of time, so we'll make this quick." He says, the screen clicking on and showing the photo of the meteors from yesterday. "As you all know, we are expecting a meteor shower today. However, there is more information that you need to know at this time." The images they had seen yesterday are replaced by several fresh images showing the meteors are falling in clusters. "These meteors are in fact clusters of objects, as you can see here. Several smaller objects are falling alongside the larger ones. These objects were completely undetected until they entered our atmosphere." He says, looking around at the group of assembled officers and NCO's. "NASA estimates they are not hitting the water at terminal velocity. They are slowing down before impact." He emphasizes that part, letting the marines know that particular piece of information is vitally important to the briefing.

The troops chatter nervously. That bit of information is disturbing, to say the least. None of them are astronomers, but they are all smart enough to realize that a rock from space should not slow down as it came closer to a planet. The image then shifts to show the objects that are falling. This brings a few more muttered conversations. It's blindingly obvious these are not meteors now.

The officer continues his briefing, quieting down the marines. "These objects in question are falling into the ocean in tightly packed clusters ten miles outside of major population centers around the world. Thermal imaging from the Hubble Telescope shows us that within each cluster is a central object much larger than the others. These objects are all the same geometric shape and appear mechanical in nature. This is not a meteor shower marines! We are at ThreatCon Delta. We are deploying into Tokyo, where we will form up defensive positions along with JSDF forces to stop anything that may come out of the ocean. Your individual unit positions will be given as soon as we get there. Get to your units."

With that, Shepard gets up and looks at Scott. "Combat." He says a bit nervously. The statement didn't need to be finished out loud. 'Combat…with aliens.' It's not something they ever trained for but now it's what they are facing. Scott nods in agreement and the two of them leave the room with the others. They go along the ship to the armory. Their troops have already gone by and have gotten their gear.

A few minutes later and the two come walking over to their unit on deck nearby an Osprey that is starting to spin up. "Alright 3-2, form it up." He says to them. "Here's the situation. This is no meteor shower. There are machines falling down into the ocean. We don't know what they are or if anything is in them. We are going to be deployed to Tokyo in anticipation of action. We'll be meeting up with JSDF forces once we hit the ground, so have your a-game on. Load up!"

With a shout of 'Hoorah' the marines turn and head over to the Osprey, climbing up inside to get on the move.

 **Tokyo, Japan**

In the downtown area of the city, Tsukiume looks up at the sky. Objects are falling from it, burning through the clear blue air and heading farther out to sea, impacting just where the water starts to get deep at. Just what is going on? As she is about to turn to leave, a puff of wind sparks up and Kazehana lands next to her, looking at the sky. Before today she would have been itching for a fight, but the streaks of fire in the sky are unsettling to her. They remind her too much of her dream. "Doth thou know what's going on?" She asks the other Sekirei.

Kazehana shakes her head. "I don't know, but I don't like it…" She says, her voice trailing off at the end of her sentence. "Come on, I know a place we can go that we'll be among friends at." She says, turning to bound off. Tsukiume doesn't move for a few seconds, watching another meteor streak down. This one she watches the entire way down. Just seconds before it hits the water, the meteor seems to explode. The meteor still hits the water after, but is going MUCH slower. She gulps and immediately turns at that point, following Kazehana.

* * *

In Maison Izumo, Minato and his Sekirei have their attention locked on the television. On it is a feed from America, from their CNN news service. For once, the news feed does not show headlines on it. It shows the 'live' indicator on the top left of the screen, but the image is a little bit fuzzy. Standing in the middle of the feed is a beautiful looking blonde woman, holding a headpiece inside one ear while holding her microphone in the other, leaned slightly forward against the wind. She's wearing a nice black suit but it can't be made out easily due to the haze.

"I have just now been told that one of the Coast Guard cutters is issuing a mayday. It's difficult to see and…" There's an explosion from off screen that interrupts the reporter. "Oh my God!" She says, the camera panning over, showing a plume of water erupting from the sea. "There is just another meteor that just hit the water, it's the closest one yet! Right behind those cutters."

The camera shows the cutters in question, sitting out to sea within view of the shore. Another meteor hits. "Two or three meteors just impacted." She says as another one hits, then a third comes streaking in and with a loud CRASH it slams into the cutter on screen, tipping the ship over onto its side. "Do you have any more information at the studio?" The reporter asks as the ship falls onto its side.

The view pans back to the reporter. People are running behind her as the reporter turns to look out to sea. "Oh, my God." She says as the sound of the detonation of the ship comes to shore, drawing her attention. The camera view shifts to a view of people standing by the shore as a wave comes washing in, swamping a half dozen people who are stupid enough to be standing by the shore recording on their phones and not paying attention to their surroundings. "Kate? Are you still hearing us?" Asks the voice of the concerned anchorwoman from back in the studio. As the reporter responds that she can hear them, the feed shows people helping up those who had been swamped and pulling them off to safety.

"What is that? What…what is that in the water?" Kate asks as the camera reorients onto the capsized Coast Guard cutter. As it lays on its side, burning and pouring smoke into the air, several large figures are standing on the side of the ship, walking around in a posture that shows that they are holding weapons at the ready. Something is off about them though, the legs are too thin, the shoulders too broad, the head too small and wide. "I can't get a good look but it appears that there's something…" As the report continues, Miya and Matsu come into the room from farther back in Maison Izumo, stopping and staring at the screen. "…I'm looking through the people trying to determine exactly what this is. I don't even know! It's like shadowy figures…I count maybe five…six, seven. I can't make out…"

She stops dead as the camera, showing the shoreline now, shows line after line of figures coming walking in from the sea. Minato gasps loudly and recoils from the screen, Musubi just staring, along with Miya. Kuu whimpers and hides behind Minato's back. The camera view on the television shifts to a helicopter view from overhead. A gloved hand is pointing out of the helicopter, but below, hundreds of the beings can be seen in the surf walking towards the shore, their postures showing they are holding some kind of weapon, each and every one of them.

"I think I'm gonna head back now!" The reporter says over the camera feed, her voice elevated in pitch, even as the camera view shifts back to show the view from the reporter's cameraman. People are running in front of the camera, blocking out the view of the creatures. Suddenly, one of the creatures fires its weapon, the round exploding out much like a cork from a bottle. The camera view instantly shifts to another camera with a higher vantage point, showing the round flying a few feet and detonating among the crowd of fleeing people. Several people are thrown like rag dolls from the explosion and lie motionless on the sand. The camera pans jerkily and another explosion, sending a dozen people flying to once again to lay motionless on the sand. Kuu begins to cry.

"I think that we're going to leave, Jean." Says the voice of the reporter as the camera changes, showing one man helping another up and both running as explosions spring up in the background seemingly at random. "I'm gonna head back now." Kate says as the camera view shifts again to more people running with rounds falling in and amongst them. The camera feed goes back to Kate just in time for her to say "Oh, my God", turn to one of the creatures, and see the round that is fired that kills her and her cameraman, the feed cutting out.

The television immediately cuts off, turned off by Miya who is holding the remote control. "Get your things." Miya says in a cold, no nonsense tone. "We have to leave." Minato stares at her for a few seconds, not knowing what to think, then jumps as from all around the loud, wailing tone of air raid sirens begins to sound its warning to the city's inhabitants.

 **Japanese Airspace, en route to Tokyo**

"All stations this net, all stations this net, stand by for sitrep, over." Comes the calm voice over the radio, played over the helicopter's intercom for the troops to hear.

Shepard and his men had been riding along, joking with one another, until one of the men's phone had gone off. A news alert, FOX News letting those who use its app know about the headline of the hour. It had read 'Unknown Forces Attacking From Sea'. At that point, they had all known it was serious. Now they listen to the report in silence.

"JSD Forces have engaged unknown enemy emerging from the ocean numbering in the thousands. Heavy JSDF casualties reported. Several Japanese battalions have been destroyed with more enemies continuing to breach out of the ocean. Enemy forces have advanced beyond the beach, JSDF Forces are currently at 35% casualty rate due to fighting along the shorelines. Enemy is attacking across the entire length of the Japanese shoreline with reinforcements landing closer..."

Shepard's radio kicks in and he focuses on it. "3-2, this is command. You will be landed in the residential area of Tokyo. You will be tasked with defending an evacuation point against any advancing enemies. Evacuate as many civilians as possible, then call for evacuation yourself. Enemy has no air support. You will have three Cobras on station to provide CAS in addition to JSDF support. How copy?"

Shepard keys his microphone. "3-2, solid copy." He says, then stands up. "Alright men, here's the mission. We are going to be dropped at an evacuation point for civilians in a residential area of Tokyo. Our job is to buy those civilians time to evac. Once evac is complete, we will evacuate as well. There is currently no enemy air, so we have air superiority and CAS will be on station. We'll be about a mile from the coastline, so we should expect to take a hit. Everyone make sure your gear is checked and ready to go." He says, then sits back down to do the same with his gear. With his briefing done, the radioed sitrep comes back to the forefront of everyone's attention.

"…infantry has a weapon with effects similar to high explosive rounds. Enemy infantry does not distinguish between military and civilian personnel and will kill both on sight. JSDF forces are not evacuating civilians fast enough, say again, they are not evacuating civilians fast enough. All units be advised, you may have civilians caught in the crossfire while engaged. 3 Actual out."

With nothing else to distract them, Shepard looks out the window. They are flying over a residential area and in the distance, they can still see 'meteors', enemy reinforcements really, falling into the ocean. The downtown area of Tokyo is belching out smoke at an alarming rate and Shepard imagines all the buildings in the combat area have fires burning in them. Three JSDF fighters fly by overhead, rocketing for the battle zone and dropping their munitions on sites where air support was called for.

After what seems like hours but in actuality is only a few minutes, the helicopter starts to descend. The rear ramp goes down and with a bump, the helicopter is on the ground. "MOVE!" Shepard yells as his men start to file out. An orderly line of worried Japanese civilians is moving towards a hospital nearby. The helipad in the back area of the hospital is being used as the evacuation point and as the marines fan out, a helicopter lifts off, heading north. Another soon lands to load up with civilians.

Several JSDF soldiers are on the ground and smile with relief at seeing the marines. One of them goes to Lt. Shepard and offers his hand in the American style. "I am very relieved to see you." He says, "I am Lieutenant Ame. If you will come this way, I can show you a map and you may plan where to best support our positions." He says. Shepard doesn't argue and goes eagerly to the map. "What kind of support do we have?" Shepard asks the smaller Japanese man.

"We have artillery support in the form of a heavy mortar team. There is also an anti-tank squad in case the enemy uses any of the nearby buildings for cover."

Shepard nods. So far, there hasn't really been enemy armor on the field. It's all been infantry. Still, their infantry likes to swarm forward, so any armor the humans have had has been destroyed after being swarmed, then hit from above by the enemy's anti-armor weapons.

It takes about five minutes for him to get a grasp on the situation and the dispositions of the Japanese forces. He then deploys his own forces to weaker spots in the Japanese line. With that done, Shepard heads over to first squad along with Sergeant Scott and settles into a firing position. A young JSDF soldier salutes him. "Sir, I am Corporal Fukunaka. I am to be your liaison for our forces." He says, motioning to his radio pack. Shepard nods. "Glad to have you." He says, motioning to the firing position nearby. "Let's get in place."

"Contact!" Comes the call over the radio, just as a round streaks off, slamming into the defensive fortifications, sending sandbags flying and one young Japanese soldier flying off into the air, scattering into pieces. The JSDF forces on that side start firing off rapidly in the direction of the attack, the civilians inside the perimeter screaming and starting to run for the hospital.

Shepard doesn't look at the firefight to his left. Instead, he examines the area in front of him. It's a good thing too, for he sees movement along the roof of the building in front of him. He focuses on it with his scope and gets a good, up close view of his target. The creature almost, almost, looks like a jellyfish, except their hide is hard and they have arms and legs. They are also firing some sort of rapid fire weapon that doesn't seem to be a separate item. It looks like they point their arm to fire. He lifts his M4A1 to his shoulder and fires off a few rounds at the alien trying to sneak up to a firing position. "Contact front!" He yells as he does so. The alien takes a hit on the arm and turns, raising his weapon. Two more rounds hit it square in the chest and the creature falls, spraying out that lethal HE round. The round rushes forward but impacts the ground well away from the dug in infantry.

More of the creatures come up, moving from cover to cover and firing quickly. Shepard turns to the Japanese radio man. "We need immediate fire support!" He yells, "Put some fire on those buildings!" He then turns back to his front, rifle firing at the enemy. Another alien falls, but another round races out from a window nearby, slamming into a heavy machine gun emplacement and destroying it entirely, as if it had been shot by a tank. "FUCK!" He yells, still shooting. "ROCKETS! Light up those damn windows! I want those bastards to get some of their own medicine!"

A few seconds later, two AT-4 missiles rocket out of the infantry line and slam into the building in front of them, blowing apart the walls. A pair of aliens are revealed but they don't appear to be stunned. They immediately fire upon the defensive line, even though they are soon mowed down by machine gun fire.

Explosions rock across the defensive line. Shepard sees a round start flying his way and jumps back to the ground. The round impacts on the sandbags and detonates, flinging the soldier who was next to him to the ground in a burning heap. He crawls over and rolls over the remains of his Japanese radioman. "FUCK!" He yells out. "I need a new radioman!" He says over his radio. The call comes back. "Radiomen are down!" He recognizes the voice of one of his squad leaders, Sergeant Dominguez.

That causes Shepard to stop and think for a minute. The radiomen are ALL dead? They had been sending traffic a few minutes before. He remembers the line of explosions and, with the shock of realization, it hits him. He looks over at Sergeant Scott. "Those fuckers, they know where our radios are and they're targeting them." He says over the sounds of battle. "Get ready to move." He says, then clicks on his microphone. "All units, the enemy is homing in on radio signals. Use hand signals or talk to your squadmates, but do not, repeat, do not get on the damn radio!" He says, then nods to the Sergeant. Both men leave the small sandbag bunker at a run and slide into a foxhole nearby. None too soon, as once they are out, the small bunker explodes as two more HE rounds slam into the position.

Scott shakes his head and pops up, firing a few more rounds at the enemy. The enemy fire is beginning to slacken off, friendly artillery finally entering the fray and slamming down onto the buildings used by the enemy as strong points. "Pass the word along." Shepard says. "I want to see Lt. Ame."

A few minutes later word comes back. "Lt. Ame was killed sir." The JSDF soldier, a Private Marusa, says to him. Shepard swears at that news. "Fine then, get me the squad leaders. I want casualty reports." He says as the artillery fire keeps up, pounding the positions to their front, occasionally sending an alien flying into the air. In another few minutes, several men come running over.

Shepard feels a sinking feeling in his gut. There are only five men coming at his summons. "Is this all of you?" He asks in shock. The men nod. "The squad leaders were mostly near their commo guys. They bought it when the bastards hit our radios." One of the new squad leaders says.

"Yeah, but there should be eight of you! Where are the other three?!" Shepard says.

"Dead. The whole squads were wiped out." Says one of the JSDF soldiers, Sergeant Yamamoto.

Shepard growls a bit. "Alright, here's the deal. I don't know how, but these squid bastards can home in on our radio transmissions. When we go into battle, I want all radios off. Also, relocate your men to secondary positions, I don't want these assholes knowing where we are." He says. "Communications are gonna have to be World War 2 style. We have ONE guy with a radio, well back from the action, who calls in fire support. You…Yamamoto, get one of your guys on it. Make sure your man can speak both English and Japanese" Yamamoto nods and runs off to get it done. "Sergeant Presley, get your fire team back a bit, defend our radio guy. Don't light anything up unless it looks like it's gonna shoot at you or at our radios." Presley nods and takes off. "The rest of you, distribute ammo, get ready. Once this mortar fire eases off they'll be back."

He looks back at the evacuation station. "Looks like only a few more loads of people left, then we bug out. Hold the line." He says, then heads out himself, his leaders spreading out to head to their squads.

* * *

Miya looks back at the skyline behind her as the others jump by her, landing on each rooftop, running to the next and leaping across the gap. They are making good time, but the battle is also making good time it seems. There are hundreds of explosions in the distance, so many that they merge together in a steady rolling noise that instills fear into even her heart. If a battle like this had erupted at Kamikura Island, she and her fellows would have been slaughtered. Luckily only a group of mercenaries who had been hired by a rival company had attacked. They were easily dealt with. "Come on, we need to move faster!" She says as two jets rocket by overhead. The pilots are more focused on the enemies attacking from the sea to pay attention to a few people jumping along. She had seen helicopters lifting off from nearby and was directing her there. They didn't look like attack helicopters, after all.

She looks back at her small group. The only one missing is Uzume. She had left shortly after they all left the Inn, heading off to find her ashikabe and make sure she is safe. They hadn't seen or heard from her since and Miya has the horrible feeling that she is dead, along with many other Sekirei and ashikabe.

"We're coming!" Minato yells to her as he is carried along by Musubi, Kuu being carried by Homura. He's constantly amazed by the sheer physical strength of the Sekirei and their powers. Musubi, as far as he can tell, is leaping along with just her leg muscles as if this is nothing. Homura, from what he's seen, flares up his body heat, literally riding a powerful updraft from building to building. Then there's Miya. She is outpacing them using some energy from inside that briefly causes a purple haze around her to develop.

He has to keep reminding himself that these Sekirei are not human. They may be so close to humans as to genetically make very little difference, but they have physical traits that make them much different, though not necessarily superior, to humans. When he first became an Ashikabe he did some research into what MBI files he could access, thanks to him being an Ashikabe. He wanted to know why these beings, as powerful as they are, needed humans at all. It seemed like all the bonuses were on the human side and the Sekirei got nothing out of it but a liability they were bound to protect due to love. The results had shocked him.

Sekirei are indeed powerful beings, able to leap between buildings, punch hard enough to shift cars, summon elemental energies into being based upon certain (still unexplained) biological forces in each of their bodies, and do other near supernatural feats. The down side to all this power is that it is unstable, made so by an emotional instability in all Sekirei from the moment they are born and lasting until such time as they bond to a human. A human, on the other hand, tends to be emotionally stable through their entire life. The humans attract Sekirei to them by having a powerful enough 'life force' that radiates brightly enough to resonate with a nearby Sekirei. The Sekirei's energy bonds to that life force, and the human becomes the center of that Sekirei's world, giving the Sekirei someone to focus on and providing the emotional stability needed for their powers to stabilize and be fully of use.

In short, their physiology screams 'created lifeform'. The fact they are compatible with humans means that something, or someone, deliberately made this mostly female race specifically to integrate with the human species. It made Minato's first night as an ashikabe a very restless one.

And now, here he is, being carried from rooftop to rooftop by his Sekirei, with a bunch of other Sekirei all around him. "Here we are." Matsu finally says. All of them gather up in a small semicircle around her. "We should go to street level now. The next row of buildings had aliens in them and are mostly destroyed by mortar fire from the squad of infantry on the other side. They are guarding an evacuation point."

"How do you know all of this?" Minato asks her.

Matsu smiles, blushing a bit as she looks at the man to which she feels a definite reaction. His life energy burns brightly, a definite attraction for any unbonded Sekirei. It glows so bright thanks to his bond with Musubi. She guesses the only reason Homura and the others aren't attracted to him is that because of their strength, his life force does not burn brightly enough for them to react. It's similar to how a candle may appear bright at night, until you shine a flashlight that you are carrying on it.

"I am Sekirei number 2. My powers allow me to integrate with nearby technology and use it remotely. I'm able to hear the radio communications across the city and see a top down view of the city thanks to satellite surveillance." Matsu says, "I knew they were there by their radio communications before they were attacked and I know they have survived because right now, their platoon leader is giving a situation report about their recent battle with the aliens." She smiles, puffing out her chest a little bit as she shows off somewhat to the man she hopes to bond with once they are safe.

Minato ahhs and nods. "Alright then, that's pretty cool." He says.

"I'm so glad you think so!" Matsu says, edging closer to him, her body heating up.

"No no." Miya says. "Wait with that until we get to safety." She says, heading for the stairwell.

* * *

Shepard comes forward to the combat line and slides into the foxhole next to his Staff Sergeant. "What have you got?" He asks. The staff sergeant lowers his binoculars while nodding and points. Shepard focuses in on the area in question. "They're massing for another attack, just outside rifle range." He whispers. Shepard nods, seeing this, and passes word down along the line. "Get ready for contact." He says to the man in the next foxhole, who passes it down.

Some movement catches his attention and he brings the binoculars over, just in time to see a woman in a white and purple outfit with purple hair come out of the main entrance to a building. She's followed by a young man, and a woman with red hair. "Shit." He says. "There's a group of civilians coming in. I don't think they've been noticed yet, though." He says as he watches.

He keeps the binoculars focused and watches as first a young girl with blonde hair comes out, followed by a girl with brown hair and another young man. The group leader, the woman with the purple hair, looks around, then slowly makes her way out and into the street. Right when Shepard thinks they'll get by without being seen, the aliens take notice. With a loud scream an HE round is launched at the group. Shepard watches with dread as it streaks down, but the group easily breaks up and jumps out of the blast range of the round. "What the…" he says, as the explosion's booming voice reaches the line of troops. He watches in amazement as the group jumps and dodges around, except for one, who is clinging to the girl with brown hair as she jumps around.

"Shit, all those squids are moving at them!" Scott says.

Shepard nods. "Everyone up! Aliens are firing upon a group of civilians, one o'clock!" He says, running forward. "This is 3-2, this is 3-2, we need immediate CAS, enemy forces attacking group of Civilians to our immediate front!" He yells into his radio.

* * *

Miya jumps from side to side, trying to move as fast as she can. She hadn't even known these creatures were there! Now here they are, pouring fire down upon them. Musubi jumps forward and slams her fist into one of the aliens, sending it crashing into a nearby shop. Two others line up on her but are engulfed in flame as Homura jumps into the fray. Matsu stays back, standing next to Minato, having been set down by Musubi, and watching the fight.

It had all been going so well. They could see the evacuation site when they came out of the building and the soldiers dug into fighting positions in the distance. Then suddenly, explosions and fire rained down from the sky. MIya curses at herself, draws her blade, and slices cleanly through one of the vile beasts, then jumps back as more fire comes in at her, lightly nicking her thigh.

She lands and claps a hand over it. "Miya!" Minato yells out, "Behind you!" The alien that had come out of the building lets out a series of low cooing noises and aims at her. She reacts instantly, bringing her sword up. She's not quite fast enough, though. With the same bottle popping effect as was seen on the television, the creature launches its round. Miya's swing catches the round and deflects it partially, but the round explodes. The jet of metal inside the round is directed away from her, but the force of the blast sends her flying into the side of a building. Red flashes over Miya's eyesight in time with her quickened pulse as she falls to the ground.

Minato rushes over as Homura kills that alien with a blast of fire. "Don't worry Miya, I've got you." She distantly hears. Then hands wrap around her arms and start dragging her back. She looks hazily over to the left and sees Musubi punch clean through one alien. Another lines up on her and is about to fire when suddenly, the creature is pitched to the side. All around them, the invaders are beginning to fall, with others turning and firing skywards as rockets start to land on the buildings to either side.

* * *

"FUCK!" Shepard swears as they run over. One of the women, the one with purple hair, is surely dead now. He saw her try to slice an incoming round out of the air. It may work in animes or movies, but in real life, the result was what happened to her. The round had detonated and the corpse had been thrown thirty feet into the side of a building. Now the younger guy was trying to drag her off to safety, the front of her outfit thoroughly torn and bloody. Shepard is surprised to see her kicking along the ground weakly to help out with getting her away. 'Holy shit she's alive?' Shepard thinks as he drops to one knee while the attack helicopters begin their runs, rockets lancing into the buildings and blasting them apart. "FIRE!" He yells, and the soldiers around him begin opening fire on the aliens. The invaders, caught entirely by surprise, are now caught in the open by the marines who put round after round among them. A few seconds later and all the exposed enemies are down.

The only problem is, more are coming.

"Move move move! Form a firing line! Get those civvies out of there!" He yells, his soldiers jumping up and running over to firing positions and taking enemy positions on roofs under fire. He can see that they've stirred up a hornet's nest. At least fifty of the alien bastards are coming at them now, firing and taking cover behind vehicles and in broken buildings. As he watches, directing his men with shouted orders and hand gestures, Private First Class Brown takes a round directly to his chest, the round burns past his armor and into his body and the soldier crumples down to the ground.

Shepard looks at the fallen soldier in shock for a half second, then with an effort shakes himself out of it and runs to the boy dragging the fallen woman. "Grab her shoulders!" He yells to him. "Stop dragging her by the arms, grab her damned shoulders!" The boy complies and he grabs the lady's feet. When he lifts her up, she screams, which surprises him! 'God sure wasn't merciful to this one.' He thinks as they carry the woman to cover.

Once in cover, he puts her down gently, trying to ignore the woman's whimpers of pain, then turns and yells, "MEDIC!" at the top of his lungs. He then turns back to the corner of the cover he is behind, a delivery truck fallen on its side due to the mortar barrage, and fires upon an alien about two hundred yards out. Only three of his five shots hit, but the creature does stay under cover. His reward for his hard work is a burst of rounds slamming into the truck's trailer. It doesn't penetrate, so the truck must have been carrying something sturdy!

Corporal Gonzalez, his medic, comes running over and kneels next to the woman. Shepard grins at this, Gonzalez is a very brave man. He ran forward with tracers racing around him, plowing up bits of asphalt and slamming into walls, to give aid. That's a medal right there! "Give me room!" He says to the boy. The boy nods and backs off. "What's your name, son?" Shepard asks. He hears the name 'Minato' and nods before popping out for a split second to fire two rounds downrange, finishing the alien he had targeted before.

"Hot…" Miya groans as she lays there on the ground. The medic looks her front over. "I don't know what you had on under these clothes that got burned away." He says to her. "But you're lucky." He turns to Shepard. "Second degree burns, sir! She's going to make it!" The medic then begins to bandage her up, working quickly.

Shepard blinks and looks at her. "The fuck? I SAW her get…" He says, then locks eyes with the beautiful woman, who stares back at him with an intensity matched only by the heat starting to build in his chest. 'What the hell is happening to me?' he wonders as he struggles to make his body move. 'I can't do anything but look at her!' Gone are the tracers around them, the battle raging as marines and JSDF fight the aliens trying to advance. Gone is the pain of the loss of his men. The only thing is her. Without having realized it he has started to pant, she doing the same as the medic just continues to work on her, lifting her up with the help of the boy, Minato, as he wraps bandages around her, the remains of her outfit's top resting to the side. He is then rocked forward a bit when a large explosion rocks the front of the vehicle. "Shit!" He yells, THAT working to snap him out of it.

He reaches forward and taps the medic's shoulder. "We got to move, or they're gonna blow us apart!" He yells to the man. "Grab her up and get into that alley." He says, pointing to an alleyway slightly back away from them. The medic nods and motions to the teenaged boy, then grabs the woman and fireman carries her to the alleyway, Shepard right behind them. Another round strikes the trailer seconds after they make it between the buildings.

Sergeant Scott sighs as the LT and the people with him get out of the way. He had thought that first round would be the end of them. Then the second explosion caused him fresh worry. It wasn't until the fireball went into the air that he saw they had made it into the alleyway. Then that boy who could somehow control fire walked up to the burning vehicle and gathered the flames on it, then hurled them skyward, the inferno rushing over the heads of several aliens who ducked down just in time to avoid having their faces burned off. The girl who was fighting hand to hand then jumps up onto the remains of the chassis of the vehicle and punches the building hard enough for the wall to collapse. The falling wood reveals the alien and two of his men immediately take the creature under fire.

"Sir! The aliens are starting to advance!" He yells at the LT, who nods and motions with his arm that they are heading out. "Covering fire!" He yells, and the squad opens up on the alien positions, trying to keep their heads down. Seemingly out of nowhere, though, one of them pops up and fires an HE round. It slams into a car that his SAW gunner and a rifleman are firing from, exploding the vehicle and sending the armless remains of the soldiers flying back ten feet. Then a strange, purple light erupts from the alleyway the Lieutenant is firing from.

"Fuck it!" Shepard yells after seeing the HE round take down his SAW gunner. He turns back to the others. "On the count of three, we run for it! One! Two! Thr…" He is cut off as the purple haired woman presses her lips fully to his, kissing him and immediately deepening it, her tongue pressing against his. Bright purple light rushes out from her back and a set of ethereal wings sprout from her back. She holds the kiss for a few seconds and then breaks it. She walks out calmly into the street then. "By the blade of my oath, my ashikabe's torments shall be cut down!" She says, drawing her sword. She slashes down the middle of the street and a blast of energy rips through the aliens there, cutting them down as if they were nothing. She turns to the rooftops and flings arcs of energy following the arc of her sword swings at each concentration of aliens, causing the alien infantry up there to either flee or be cut down. By the time Miya finishes cutting things apart, all incoming fire has stopped.

Shepard pokes his head out and looks down the street at the carnage along the walls of the shops, the roofs, the cars torn in half along with the aliens. "Holy shit." He says softly, then gets up.

Before he can say or do anything else, Miya turns to him. "I am Sekirei Number 1, Miya. I recognize you as my ashikabe. Our lives are forever intertwined, my destined one." Her hair starts to wave in the wind as the Cobras Shepard had called in fly past overhead, having seen the effects of the attack. Right now, in their little corner of the war, a stunned silence has fallen over the battle hardened marines.

Shepard says the first thing that comes to mind: "What?"


	3. Evacuation

**USS Ronald Reagan, Off the coast of Japan**

The Admiral in charge of the 7th Fleet of the United States Navy sighs as he watches the television in his office in Okinawa. One of the little known effects of 9/11 on the US military was a standing order that all military buildings must have a television on, volume on low, tuned to a national news channel. The same is true on aircraft carriers, given that some of them may be in range to assist with whatever disaster or attack comes on the news. The Admiral watches the television in shocked silence.

The screen shows a man in front of a camera, looking around as people around him are running and the city skyline behind him, showing the suburbs leading to the ocean in Los Angeles, is exploding as the battle for the city draws on within a mile from the ocean. Thick black pillars of smoke rise into the air from various buildings that are burning out of control inside the battle line. Helicopters race by overhead launching missiles and close air support attack fighters, mainly A-10's, make strafing runs. Once again on the screen, there is no headline bar, just the word 'Live' on the top left hand corner. "We don't know much here on the scene. Marine forces are setting up a defensive line here on Lincoln Boulevard in an attempt to stem the tide of quote 'enemy forces' that are arriving with each falling meteor. Meanwhile, troops are amassing in every coast and along every major coastline around the globe. The UN has called an emergency sitting in an attempt to establish a means of sharing resources across the globe." He says, the camera showing a squad of infantry advancing into the crowd of fleeing civilians and going past them and into the fray as explosions rock the horizon.

The view shifts back to the desk in the CNN main studio, starting off with the breaking news animated logo and then showing the attractive anchorwoman. The news feed on the bottom of the screen reads 'BREAKING NEWS World at War: Meteors fall off the coast of California.' Next to the CNN logo, the current stock market conditions are displayed with 'DOW 6,329' with a red arrow pointing down, indicating loss. The market had lost well over 13,000 points so far. That causes the Admiral to suck in a shocked breath. It's a complete and total nightmare. As the anchor begins to speak, the screen splits, showing footage shot earlier from helicopters orbiting over downtown Los Angeles, showing the coastline suburbs covered in smoke, lit up briefly by explosions. Tracers race up from positions inside the suburbs, attempting to shoot the meteors down as they fall from the sky while over the ocean and beach, Sea Knight helicopters fly in line, avoiding the combat area where artillery is falling sporadically in response to calls for fire from the troops on the ground. A pair of the falling pods explode nearby several of the helicopters, the explosions how those craft slow before impacting the water. Thankfully none of the helicopters went down. Fighters fly into frame, small, faster moving craft in the line of helicopters, swooping in from above the helicopters and firing, then pulling up and away.

The view shifts to the New York skyline. Skyscrapers are burning along the water line, with several having fallen completely. Ships that were at anchor and unloading cargo are partially sunken, burning from whatever parts are out of the water.

"For those of you just tuning in to these amazing and distressing events around the world, an unidentified enemy has breached our coastlines in a swift and militaristic attack. Right now there are many more questions than answers but one thing is clear: The world is at war. We have received word about attacks underway in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, London, Honolulu and several other places around the globe." The camera view changes to show a view of the London skyline. A wide towering pillar of smoke is rising behind Big Ben in the distance along with other fires raging around the city. The information feed changes to read 'Britain Under Attack. London Bridge Destroyed, South London Evacuating. The anchor's voice still sounds steady over it all. "Right now, in London, hundreds of thousands are feared dead as this unknown enemy steadily pushes against British forces trying to defend the City. Word out of Tokyo is that the city is being overrun."

As she says that, the view shifts to a view of Tokyo, the city already burning in multiple places and the fighting nowhere near as intense as elsewhere but the city seeming to be ablaze, with not a single structure untouched. "Stretched thin Japanese Self Defense Forces have been broken in many places, including in Tokyo, even with the support of US Forces in Japan. The government there has informed this studio that it is attempting to evacuate as many civilians as it can to ships located out to sea. We…Hold on." The view shifts back to the anchorwoman as she holds a hand to her ear. "We have finally received word that the military is giving a briefing. We have word that the President is still unaccounted for, but that the military chain of command is still intact. We now take you live to a press briefing by Sergeant Major Dever."

The image on the screen shifts to show a man with receding hair dressed in a Marine Corps set of battle fatigues. He is standing behind a podium with several microphones and a few people stand between him and the camera, darkening entire sections of the feed with their silhouettes. This more than anything shows the speed with which the situation is developing, as the media did not have time to set up their cameras properly before the briefing started. The CNN news feed on the bottom of the screen reads 'BREAKING NEWS Sergeant Major Dever: Meteors fall off the coast of California.' Next to the CNN logo, the current stock market conditions are displayed with 'DOW 4,847' with a red arrow pointing down to the words 'Trading Suspended' in blood red. In the space of five, maybe six minutes, the Dow Jones Industrial Stock Exchange has fallen more than 2,000 points, another indicator of the large amount of panic among the civilian populations around the world.

The sergeant major is already speaking when the camera view shifts to him. "…ic Standard Time, twelve different locations across the globe were breached in what appears to have been a coordinated attack by an unknown enemy. All breaches were along the coastline in what is a campaign of rapid dominance. This is a textbook military invasion. There are massive casualties in New York, defensive lines are being set up in Boston, and at 13:15 Zulu time, we lost communications with San Francisco and San Diego. Their status is unknown. What we do know is that we are the last offensive force on the west coast. We cannot lose Los Angeles."

The view on screen cuts back to a view of the London skyline, with smoke billowing into it, the stock market value now at 2,721. The Admiral is a bit relieved that there's still a chain of command. His thoughts are interrupted as his phone rings. Time to get back to it.

* * *

Shepard rushes back to the trench line with his troops and the motley collection of civilians they just rescued, not to mention the purple haired swordswoman who just roflstomped an entire fucking platoon of infantry! Yes, roflstomped. No military designation of the fight would have explained what he saw. And with what appeared to be bursts of some sort of energy he had never seen before! The fuck was this sci fi shit? And where could he learn how to do that? He spares a second in his sprint to look at the woman, who is easily keeping pace with him even though she is in a kimono. She notices his gaze and gives him a sweet looking smile.

Once back in the line and under the cover of the trenches, he turns to his Staff Sergeant. "I want a status report on what's left, but above that, I want time." He says to the guy. Scott nods in understanding and heads off to do what his LT has told him to. Shepard then turns to Miya. "Alright, just what the hell are you? What do you mean by ash-e-cah-bey?" He asks, having to take his time to pronounce that last word correctly.

"It's a word used to identify those who are capable of bonding with a Sekirei." Miya says, then puts her hand over her chest to indicate herself. "I am a Sekirei, and you are **my** ashikabe." She puts a definite possessive note on the word 'my' for some reason or another. He can tell there's something bugging her about it, some inner disbelief or regret, but the thought is gone soon, as if on the breeze. "Anyway, introductions."

She introduces each of the Sekirei there and the single other ashikabe. Shepard nods to each and is surprised to learn the boy is bonded to both the kimono wearing kickboxer and the little kid. "No way, the kid here is a Sekirei?" He asks in shock.

"She can control plants." Minato supplies helpfully, getting a surprised look from Shepard.

"Not to be blunt, but who are you?" Kagari asks.

Shepard blinks and then flushes a bit. "I am First Lieutenant Brent Shepard, US Marine Corps." He says.

Miya's eyes seem to light up as she smiles. "Then I am Mrs. Shepard now!" She says gleefully, only to regain control a few seconds later, though she is obviously excited.

"Now, can you tell me just what in God's green earth a Sekirei is?" He asks.

It takes Miya five minutes to explain to Shepard, mostly repeating herself to make sure it gets into his head. They too are beings not of the Earth, but where these ones are using their technology to try to destroy humans, Sekirei desire only to love their destined partner and stay by his side, using their powers to ensure their ability to do so.

"'Scuse me folks…" Comes a deep voice from nearby. Shepard turns to see Scott standing there.

"What have you got for me, Staff Sergeant?" Shepard asks.

Scott grins. "We done pretty good Lieutenant. No one died in that last firefight."

"Good." Shepard says in response. "We need to begin falling back to our extraction point. I don't think we have the strength to go into front line combat right now. Get me our radioman." He says, remembering now to actually use the guy. Sergeant Scott nods and rushes off, glad that his Lieutenant actually remembered this time that the aliens can easily track in on radio signals and that he needs to use his radio man instead of his own set. He comes back a few minutes later with a scared looking Japanese soldier.

"Corporal Nakata reporting sir." He says, saluting.

"Good for you, dial up command on your radio and call for evac. Our site's clear and we can't do any more good here." Shepard says, getting a grin out of Kagari and Miya both.

Fifteen minutes later, two helicopters set down. Blackhawks. This snaps Shepard to reality in terms of his losses. They had several squads of infantry at the start, now they have enough to fit into two blackhawks with ease. Sergeant Scott sees the 'sekirei group' heading for a single helicopter and shakes his head. "Nono. We can't risk all of you in one bird." He says. "You…" He points to Kagari, "And you." He points to Matsu. "Get in the first helicopter. The rest in the rear one." He says. The group does as the sergeant says, dispersing among the soldiers, and soon both helicopters lift off to fly back. The crew chief gives Shepard a funny look, then eyes the purple haired sekirei. She glares at him. "Eyes to yourself." She snaps, bringing his eyes up in a hurry. "Sorry ma'am." he says quickly, not wanting to piss off a group of soldiers who looked keyed up and ready to kill more than not wanting to piss off the woman herself. If only he knew...

During the flight back, Shepard desperately tries to figure out a way to explain all this to higher command. Thankfully, Miya isn't hanging all over him like he had seen the pink kimono wearing Musubi doing with Minato. He shakes his head at that, even as Kagari somehow sprouts a flame from his thumb and holds it out so that one of his soldiers can light up a cigarette. The soldier is in the window seat so Shepard doesn't really say anything. Hell, with the day they've had...He pulls out a cigar from his breast pocket. "Hey! Ya mind?" He asks, cutting the back off his cigar with his bayonet. Kagari grins and holds out his thumb and the flame sprouting from it, something Shepard would NEVER have believed before today, so he could light up. A few puffs and he's back by the open door, the cigar smoke going out of it. Miya looks on in slight disapproval, her dreamy eyed image of him degrading a bit more towards real life. As her man puffs on his cigar a bit, she sighs, fidgeting a little bit. Americans...

Lost in thought, Shepard looks back at the other helicopter as the two choppers fly on. Before his very eyes, it explodes brilliantly in a flash of orange and red that turns quickly to black smoke, the helicopter splitting in half under fire from…something. Time seems to slow down for him as the helicopter he's in also takes a hit. The tail is blown off and the helicopter begins spinning as two triangular objects race by. In his adrenaline fueled, Matrix bullet time style moment, he can see them clearly, all engines, slightly busted armor, and sleek as a freakin' hammer head. How the hell are those things moving that fast and not coming apart from wind resistance? How could the pilot keep it steady?

"Fuck!" Scott calls from inside as he is thrown into his seat, the other soldiers shouting out in horror. That draws him back to the present and time resumes its normal flow.

"We're hit!" The pilot calls at the same time as alarms blare loudly in the cockpit.

Shepard feels a pair of slender arms wrap around his waist. Soon after, he is airborne. "Holy FUCK!" He yells in sheer horror as he drops towards the roofs below, held by Miya as she drops. It's all he can do to keep his hands on his M4 so it doesn't go sailing away, but the same cannot be said for his cigar. 'Fuck fuck fuck fuck…this is gonna hurt!' He thinks desperately. Miya lands neatly as a cat however and sets him down, Matsu landing behind him with Scott. Kagari lands as well, the Japanese radio operator Takata with him. Shepard notices this in the split seconds it takes for him to whirl and look up at the autorotating Blackhawk as it spins towards a nearby building, the pilot trying in futility to regain control.

Just as he thinks it's about to hit and explode, a burst of wind rises up from underneath the helicopter, cushioning it, allowing it to settle down on the roof. The burning back half is immediately dowsed in water. Now that's confusing. As Shepard watches, two more women jump down and land next to the helicopter, which had …landed, if that could be believed… a few roofs over. One has blonde hair and what appears to be a gothic outfit of black and white, the other has black hair with a skin tight purple outfit. Then Kagari enters into the scene, having jumped over there when he realized what was going on. Together, the three people pull the soldiers out of the wrecked bird.

Shepard's first considered action after seeing his bird saved from a fiery death is to turn to Miya to tell her to warn him next time. As he does, he sees her staring off into the distance. Following her line of sight, he sees a fire burning on the side of a building nearby, the bent tail of a Blackhawk sticking out, the tail rotor slowly rotating still. His heard sinks as he sees this. The helicopter had been near a full load. He remembers how Miya had jumped out of the helicopter with him and hope stirs in him. He quickly kneels next to the ledge and looks at the street below. "Ah shit…" He says as he sees what he had hoped not to see. Laying on the street, seemingly intact and alright, is Musubi, but she's not moving and looks like she's either dead or in a coma. The young girl Kusano is right next to her, also unmoving. She, however, has a blood stain on the right side of her white dress. He looks over after hearing a soft gasp, maybe a whispered 'no'. Miya is standing there, her hand over her lips and a tear coming down from her eye.

Shaking his head, Shepard stands up. His staff sergeant is visibly shaken. He had obviously followed their gazes and seen the street. The sight of the dead child and unconscious Sekirei seems to have put him over the edge. "Scott." Shepard says. No response. "Scott!" He says louder. Still no response, the guy is just staring at the bodies on the street. "Staff Sergeant Scott!" He says loudly and authoritatively. That snaps him out of it.

"Sir!" He shouts, snapping to attention. Training is taking effect now that his mind is completely numb given what he's seen.

"Focus!" He shouts. "Get with Takata and tell them about this." He orders, then turns to Miya. "Let's get down there, we should check on them. See if they are…" He draws to a stop as Miya shakes her head.

"They may be able to recover physically, but if they haven't gotten up already, it means they've lost their reason to live." She says, turning to face him, revealing eyes that are full of unshed tears ready to burst free. "Minato is dead. So they too are dead."

This causes him to hold up and think. He died, so they died? What would happen if he himself had died during that fire fight? Would she have died too? That thought was unpleasant, as if imagining if his mother or father would die because he died. That thought followed upon another, more self-examining. Why should he care if she died because he did? "That doesn't make sense." He says simply, in order to buy time to think.

"It is perfectly sensible, my love." Miya says, a tear streaking down her dirty face. "An ashikabe and Sekirei are linked soul deep. An ashikabe, who lived alone and are emotionally stable before bonding, may survive a sekirei's death. A Sekirei, however, needs an ashikabe to stabilize emotionally, attain our full power, and love." She says, another tear streaking down, this one from her other eye. She brings her hand up to stroke the side of his face, seeming to need the contact. "If our ashikabe dies, it's as if half our souls are ripped away."

"If our ashikabe dies, there's nothing to anchor us. We feel a hole in our lives and we fall into that hole whether we like it or not." Says an unfamiliar voice. Shepard looks over to see Matsu standing there, a few tears trickling from her eyes. Miya looks at her and suddenly, a look of profound sympathy comes onto her face.

"You were reacting to him." It's not a question she asks, but rather a simple statement of fact.

Matsu silently nods, staring at the two Sekirei on the street. Shepard knows he needs to stop this. They can't stay here. They have to move. Right. Now.

"Hey, we need you two in the here and now." Shepard says, Scott nodding his head. "We can mourn them later. For now, we need to make sure we'll be alive TO mourn."

Matsu turns sharply to him. "How could you be so heartless?!" She yells.

"Because we're still in danger here" He responds simply. "Sergeant Scott. Any word on HQ?" Scott looks at him. "They saw the attack on UAV and are wondering how we survived. I was trying to explain it to them, but when they heard 'sekirei' I was immediately told to shut up, get off the air, and await pickup here." He says, looking confused.

Shepard nods and looks to Miya. "If you'd be so kind?" He asks, holding out his left arm, his right hand holding his rifle still. Miya, immediately picking up on what he wants, nods. "Hold on tightly to me." She says, then blushes as he does exactly that.

Once in the air, jumping from one roof to another, he holds more tightly, his hip pressing to hers, not realizing it's causing her to blush fire hydrant red. When she gets him to the roof the helicopter is set down on, he rushes over. Three others are alive. Corporal Gonzalez, the medic, and PFC's John Brown and James Davis. "You guys alright?" He asks. They all nod, clearly dazed, and say nothing.

With his men alright, Shepard goes to check on the pilots. One of them is clearly dead, peppered through with shrapnel. The pilot, however, appears to be in the 'wish you were dead' category. He opens the door and slides the pilot out. Scott is by his side after the buckles are unlatched. They drag the pilot free and lay him down, the groans of the injured man giving them the hope that he'll make it.

"Gonzalez!" Shepard shouts, and the man, though clearly in shock from his close call, gets up and rushes over. After a few seconds of staring, he gets to work on helping the pilot, his training keeping him going and allowing his mind to catch up. "PFC Brown, PFC Davis, spread out. Establish overwatch. Do NOT engage unless fired upon." Shepard yells at the two other men, who stare at him blankly for a few seconds before jumping up. With a pair of oorahs, they rush off to follow their LT's orders. He then points to the blonde woman standing next to the black haired woman. "You! Who are you?" He calls out. The woman blinks and looks at him, blue eyes wide. Clearly she's just barely holding herself together, but then again it's not every day you're in a city that's being destroyed steadily but surely by continuous fighting. The black haired one looks between the two, as if wondering what will happen. "Who. Are. You?" Shepard asks more slowly.

"I am Tsukiume, Sekirei number…" She starts, only to be interrupted.

"That's great, are you the one that can control water?" He asks, remembering the dowsing the helicopter took. When she nods, he nods back. "Put some water down on the engine compartment. It's still smoking a bit." He says to her, pointing to where a thin wisp of smoke is coming out through the rotor section of the Blackhawk.

"What are you doing?" Miya whispers in his ear. Shepard looks at her then points to the battle zone they were almost out of. From their position, it's quite a view.

Fighters are in the air, engaged in a fierce dogfight. As she watches, two Mitsubishi F-2 fighters are fighting for their lives. One is being chased by one of those darts. As the dart starts turning inside the F-2, it breaks hard right. As the dart follows, a missile launched from the second impacts one of its engines and sends it spinning into a building that is already burning. Another dart is angling in on the launching aircraft but breaks hard right as a missile streaks over her head towards its target. The missile hits, but this dart remains airborne, trailing smoke. An F-15J streaks by overhead, another missile leaping off its wing. Shortly after missile launch the fighter pulls sharply up, afterburners of its own blazing and heading high into the clouds as the two F-2's climb rapidly, tailpipes blazing in also afterburner as two more darts start to rise up to engage them.

A half dozen other vessels, these looking like traditional flying saucers, fly nearby and are seemingly oblivious to the furious air battle. As Miya focuses on them, she can see that these are actually collections of several darts docked together! One of those saucers fires down at the street and a massive fireball rises into the sky as the underground fuel tank it had been targeting converts into flame and shoots into the air, devastating the block around it.

"We need to get ready to fight. We have to do our part to save civilians and stop these bastards." He says to her. "To do that, we need for the men to be on task and for that helicopter's fuel tanks to not go up while we're on this roof." She isn't paying attention, her gaze completely caught by the city under attack. Here a pair of military helicopter gunships are ducking and dodging back and forth, trying to shoot down drones attacking them with their guns while a larger, double bladed helicopter tries to escape. It's no use, the drones dance around those helicopters as if they are nothing and blast them out of the sky with ease. As the drones close on the larger helicopter, soldiers on the ground start shooting at them from concealed locations, drawing the drones off. As those soldiers are picked off one at a time or in pairs, the large helicopter, packed full of civilians, is able to escape.

Above, there are more fighters engaging in high speed dogfights with the drones. The fighters are more able to match them than the helicopters, but even so, as she watches, a drone turns inside an F-2 and puts a shot into the center of the aircraft, blasting it out of the sky. The drone falls to a short burst of cannon fire from another fighter, which has to break hard to avoid a shot from another drone. The maneuver burns off a lot of energy which makes the fighter unable to avoid the other drone coming from below. The drone fires its shot, tearing off the wing of the fighter. The pilot ejects, leaving a tumbling, burning aircraft to explode on the ground in enemy territory. An enemy not interested in taking prisoners.

And finally, down the main road, a tank with a squad of human infantry supporting is desperately fighting against alien troops as they advance down the street, backing up slowly as civilians desperately try to make it behind their thin line and run. Even as she watches, an APC rolls up and more troops rush out, taking up position to try to buy more time, even with their comrades dying before them to buy time. All to buy time.

For the next five minutes or so, nothing happens. The soldiers and Sekirei watch the battle as it unfolds around the city, the crash they just narrowly avoided sinking into their minds. As they do, Shepard goes over to the two new Sekirei who are sitting alone next to the wrecked helicopter. "Close call." He says, looking at the wrecked machine.

"Yeah…" The black haired one says. "Glad I could help." She says, giving a forced smile.

"What are your names?" Shepard asks, looking down at them.

Both of them stand up and gaze at him. The black haired one speaks first. "I am Kazehana. I'm Sekirei number 3."

"And I am Tsukiume. Sekirei number 9." The blonde one says in a haughty, slightly arrogant tone, crossing her arms. She seems to have gotten control over herself now that the actual adrenaline pumping crisis has passed. Her eyes no longer have that glint of panic and fear.

Shepard nods and looks the two women over. They're dusty and soot covered, just like everyone else. There are tears in their clothing as well, nothing revealing, but the clothes would need replacement. "Thank you for saving my men in the helicopter." He says to them.

Takata rushes over to Shepard as the two Sekirei start telling him that it was nothing. "Sir, the helicopter is here! Command wants us out ASAP." He says, pointing backward. As he does, four Blackhawks rapidly approach, one landing on the roof nearby, the others on the street. Soldiers…Japanese soldiers, rush out to take up firing positions and await the enemy. Overhead, there's a loud roaring sound of jet engines on high power. Above, five F-2's and 3 F-15's rush into the battle, missiles leaping off the rails and racing in towards their targets. Had those fighters been escorting these helicopters?

A Japanese soldier runs towards them. "You must all get on. Now!" He says in accented English as he points frantically to the helicopter he had just departed. Shepard nods and turns. "Davis, Brown. Get off your asses and move it out! Staff Sergeant, help Gonzalez get our wounded onto the chopper." He yells, rushing over to the helicopter. "What's the situation?" He asks the crew chief, his radioman standing next to him.

"Horrible. JSDF is down to 20% effectiveness in some places. The whole city is a write off. Command wants us out in fifteen minutes!" The crew chief yells back. Shepard doesn't like this. He had seen the direction the helicopters had come from. They had come from the battle line. These troopers were giving up their ride for them.

As the troops rush to obey orders, the Japanese soldier comes to Miya.

"You are the aliens who have lived among us peacefully for the last decade?" He says to her in Japanese, his eyes looking serious and determined.

"Yes." Miya says back, nodding her head to him. "I am Miya Asama…Shepard." She says, adding the last part in after a little bit of thought. She is a married Sekirei now, after all!

The soldier smiles. "Good, very good. We were honored to have you live among us. Please, do me this honor. When you are able to make these aliens suffer, do so. Make them pay for every last drop of blood they have spilled from our people."

Miya nods to him. "I will." She says with finality. "My blade will be the last thing any of them that come near me will see."

With that, he bows to her, then waves to his troops and heads for their overwatch position, each of the soldiers that came with him carrying the parts needed for .50 caliber heavy machine guns. She understands now. This soldier is here to set up defenses while they get away.

It's a bit of a surprise. Not that the Japanese government had known about her and her kind. That much was to be expected, a company can't easily hide things from a curious home government. It was his treatment. She had expected hostility to her. Yet, he had said 'our people' to her. This man treated her as if she were no different than any other countryman of his. She looks to the helicopter, then back at the man and nods when he looks her way. That being done, she turns to the helicopter, hardly noticing the other Sekirei walking with her, calmly, proudly, to the helicopter. They may not be of the Earth, but this is their home now, and they are accepted. She and the others board the helicopter and she sits proudly next to her ashikabe. When she looks out, the men salute her as the helicopter takes off and keep that way until they are no longer distinguishable among the smoke clogged air.

As they go, the fighters desperately attack the enemies in the air, drawing darts into high speed engagements, taking shots only when they are easily available at minimal risk. An F-15 takes a hit to its rear and cartwheels through the air, the pilot refusing to eject, choosing to go down with his craft rather than be executed upon hitting the dirt and being found by the aliens. The other aircraft seem to fight even harder, buying time for the last few helicopters to escape.

As they clear the cityscape, the inside of the Blackhawk is quiet. An entire platoon of men had gone into Tokyo. Now, six marines are all that are left of that platoon, alongside five Sekirei. With the wounded pilot laying on the deck between them, it is a bit cramped. Ordinarily the Blackhawk can only hold eleven men, but rules are always broken for the wounded. "All units. Hammer in progress." Comes the radio over the helicopter's intercom.

This stirs Shepard out of his silence. Hammer. There are only a few things that could mean. He looks to his new, purple haired soulmate. "Those men, those fighter jets, all of them. They were all sent in to cover our escape." He says to Miya as they look back at the ruined skyline of Tokyo. Miya nods, her face one of stony determination, sure they would make the invaders suffer. "They died so we could escape." He says, causing Miya to turn her head to him. "What do you mean?" She asks.

He ignores the question. "What did he say to you?" He asks her instead of answering.

Miya raises an eyebrow. "He wants me to get them back for all of this. For what they're doing to our people." She says. "Now, what did you mean?" She asks again. Unseen by the helicopter's passengers, a missile streaks by overhead.

"Blast warning, shield your eyes!" The pilot of the helicopter says. Shepard wastes no time. He grabs Miya and lowers her down so she is not looking outside, as does every soldier near to a Sekirei on that helicopter. There's a blindingly white flash from behind the helicopter that fills the cabin up with white radiant light. When it fades, Shepard lets go of the woman, who looks back and sees a large mushroom cloud rising from the coastal area of the city. As she watches, buildings fall over from the massive blast wave of the nuclear detonation, crushing those underneath who didn't die immediately from the heat wave. She can just barely see a saucer whirling down out of the sky and crashing into the ground with a large fireball of its own, several others cropping up in the periphery of the explosion, which had been centered over the front line of battle. The memory of those soldiers saluting her and the others as they flew away comes to mind. They had known and they stepped up anyway.

Not only that, humanity was showing the aliens just how determined they are to keep their world. She looks away as the mushroom cloud climbs thousands of feet up into the air and closes her eyes as she leans against her man, a tear falling from her eye for the men she didn't even know who had given their lives for her and the others here.

Another flash, this one from farther away.

* * *

The admiral sighs as he looks at the display. For the second time in a hundred years, the United States has dropped nuclear weapons on Japan. Nevermind that this was at the request of the Japanese Prime Minister. He remembers the conversation had a few short hours ago. The Prime Minister had asked him to have strategic weapons used on the various landing zones in Japan. When asked if he was sure, the Prime Minister laughed a bit and had said, "We survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We cleaned them and rebuilt them. We can do the same with Tokyo and the other beachhead sites. We cannot do so if these…things…kill all our people. Besides, you have done the same…"

From behind him, the flag captain of the USS Ronald Reagan steps up behind him. "Sir…Precious Cargo has been successfully evacuated."

The admiral nods. "Good. As soon as they are aboard, send them here. I don't care what I'm doing at the time."

 **A/N Woohoo for delays. Yeah, it was a choice between internet and getting a dead tooth taken out. Choice is obvious, right? Anyway, be expecting another chapter soon.**


End file.
